Pray for Good News Week

Good News Week: Real Life Part 1: Prayer

The good news we have is God’s good news about Jesus for us, and therefore prayer is critical in our plans to share the good news. It reminds us that God is the Lord of the harvest, and he is the one, who through his Word, calls people into his Kingdom. We are his servants holding out the word of truth. Have you reflected on how you pray for your family, friends, and neighbours....
It is worth remembering with respect to prayer, we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.... Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Prayer is a privilege, praying for our harvest opportunities is part of the privilege of prayer. It is possible to lose sight on this privilege in the cut and thrust of everyday life.
Paul gives some more practical suggestions with respect to praying for our harvesting, “ Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” Here are prayer points for us to pray generally and specifically. We ought to pray for those who proclaim the good news among us preachers, evangelists, lecturers, teachers, bible study leaders, scripture teachers, anyone who proclaims the word of truth. Specifically with Good news week in mind we ought to pray for Ray Galea, our visiting speaker, and our Trinity Mission Team.
What should we pray? We ought to pray that God may open doors of opportunity for the proclamation of Christ amongst our friends family and networks. Secondly we ought to pray that those among us who proclaim the word of truth will proclaim it clearly. We can be confident that Ray Galea will do that for us. I want to encourage you to be specific in your prayers naming those for whom you desire God to open doors for them to hear the good news. Prayer specifically helps us to be more focused in our encouraging and inviting.
Jesus teaches us to pray that God’s kingdom will come, God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God’s kingdom comes in this present life through the preaching of the good news about Jesus, as God calls people to himself. Pray Hard !

GP

Did you miss a talk?

Did you miss a talk ?

Do you want to listen to one of our talks again?

Do you want to send a talk to someone you know?

You can download our talks via the website....

Our Current Series is:

Gods Words: The Ten Commandments

below to our audio download section.....

http://stmattsshentonpark.org.au/o/content/blogsection/6/83/

or order through the office 9381 2640

GP

Minute 4 Mission: TEAR Fund

Three weeks ago John and I went to our first ever TEAR Conference. We were impressed with the 200+ highly motivated and dedicated Christians there. Most of them were young adults keen to explore ways of living Christianly in a broken world. TEAR has a policy of reducing costs by working through various agencies in third world countries. They place fieldworkers with those agencies and seek to live out the Gospel by word and deed to bring about change amongst poor and suffering peoples.

One such couple are Bryan and Lisa Hughes, Australian TEAR fieldworkers. They went on a short term trip to Cambodia a few years ago and saw for themselves the plight of the urban poor in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. They felt a stirring within them and sensed that life might never the quite the same. They saw Christians choosing to live in simplicity and in community in order to live out the Gospel in a wholistic way. They have since returned to Phnom Penh as TEAR fieldworkers and are living in a very poor neighbourhood alongside the people they want to serve and empower.

At first they lived with a Cambodian family to begin to learn about their lives and their language. They are now living in their own home which is just one room - 8m x 2.5m which serves as bedroom, living room, dining room study and kitchen. They share a bathroom with a Cambodian family. They don't find it easy: there's less privacy, less space, lots of noise, flooding in the rainy season, foul-smelling factory smoke, rubbish, rats and mosquitoes. Yet they say there has been very great rewards in building genuine friendships and being part of the local community. They are becoming more fluent in Cambodian and are keen to become servants of the Gospel in that poor community

Let us pray for TEAR and fieldworkers such as Bryan and Lisa Hughes who are bringing the light of the Gospel to very dark places.

For more info on TEAR Fund click the links below:

http://www.tear.org.au/

http://www.tear.org.au/wa/


BT

How to have the gifts of the Spirit! Part #2

Paul uses the picture of a human body to illustrate how the different members, with different gifts come together to form one body, the church.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body

Notice three challenges:

1. There is no room for inferiority

Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

2. There is no room for uniformity

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

3. There is no room for Superiority

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" ... But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Applying the body picture to our Church family Paul says:

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

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What does this teach us about where we fit in the Body of Christ?

What do you eagerly desire?

Serve Well!

GP

How to have the gifts of the Spirit! Part #1

In Corinthians 12-14, Paul teaches about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in distributing 'gifts' to God's people to equip them for service.

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

One Spirit -> Many gifts

One Lord -> Many acts of service

One God -> Many workings

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

The implication of this is:

1. Every Christian has a role to play in the church family.

2. Every Christian has been equipped by God for service.

3. Every Christian has a gift to develop for the benefit of the other

The right question to ask is not "What is my Gift?" but "How can I serve?"

It is in service that our gifts are utilised and developed "for the common good".

How has the Spirit equipped you to serve in the church family?

How are you serving at present?

Serve Well!

GP

How to be filled with the Spirit !

Are you a Spirit-filled Christian? The descriptive language of "Spirit filled" and "full of the Spirit" occurs throughout the OT and Luke/Acts. However, the direct command to 'Be filled with the Spirit' only occurs once in the New Testament, in Ephesians 5:18:

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

From the context, Paul teaches us to be filled with the Spirit is the Spirit’s work of forming Christ in us, a life which is pleasing to God (How we speak, think, act, relate, work...etc..)

About the command in 5:18, we can say it is an imperative not a nice suggestion, it is plural, and therefore corporate not private; it is present tense, and so with ongoing daily force; It is passive, it is about God at work in us by his Spirit.

But what does being Spirit filled look like?

Paul unpacks that further in 5:19-21

to be Spirit filled means:

1. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

2. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord.

3. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (which Paul further unpacks in the context of marriage, parenthood, and slavery)

How do these marks of the Spirit filled life show themselves in you ?

What do you need to put off in your life?

Jesus said “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. John 7:37-39

Walk by the Spirit!

GP

150th Anniversary of Perth Diocese

We are invited to a series of diocesan events happening at the end of July to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Diocese of Perth

1. The Diocesan Multicultural Ministry Committee invites you to a special celebration of diversity on Friday the 27th of July 2007. We have a couple of seats on our table left...

2. The Diocesan Day of Worship celebrating the 150th Anniversary with sung Eucharist will be held on Sunday the 29th of July 2007 commencing at 10.30am at Challenge Stadium, Mt Claremont with Preacher Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York.

3. A Corporate Breakfast for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations on Monday the 30th of July 2007 with Guest Speaker Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York.

4. 1662 Evensong on the 150th Anniversary of the Anglican Diocese of Perth with Preacher, Jeffrey Driver, Archbishop of Adelaide to be held at St George’s Cathedral, Perth on Wednesday, 25 July 2007 commencing at 7.00pm.

and more.................

For more info on events or ticketing call the office 9381 2640.

GP